Harvest Time at the Jersey Shore

I was in Stone Harbor, NJ this weekend to see family, and also got to witness the fall harvest. No, I'm not talking about wheat, I'm talking about houses.

Houses have a short life in this town. They last one, maybe two owners, until fashion and property values calls for their demolition and replacement. Since I rarely get down to the shore in the fall, I usually miss this event, but I was lucky this year.

After holding a tag sale to sell as much of the house as they could (furniture, kitchen appliances and cabinets, carpeting, windows, toilets, deck railings, garage door, etc), the demoliton team moved in. They began by unloading their track hoe and 40-cubic-yard dumpster. Starting at the front of the house, the hoe gradually ate away at the house, chewing up the pieces into splinters. The whole process was finished by the end of the day. The entire house fit into three dumpster loads, and the concrete foundation slab, sidewalks, and driveways were loaded into a dump truck.

Here are some more pictures and a video of the action:

The mist is a water sprinkler to help minimize dust.

View from the neighboring deck. As the demo progresses, the operator uses the remaining walls to help contain the waste. Using the jaws of the bucket, he chews up the materials so that they will fit more compactly into the waiting dumpster.